Single and five months pregnant with nowhere to go, Turquoise Prewitt found a place to stay in September at the Father Ed Judy House in Denver.

Prewitt, 30, left Arizona last year looking for a new start. It didn’t work out — but Catholic Charities of Denver’s the Father Ed Judy House, a past recipient of funding from Denver Post Charities Season to Share, has provided a safety net.

“I am just happy to be here,” Prewitt said. “I appreciate what they are doing for me. If I wasn’t here, I don’t know where I would be.”

The Father Ed Judy House serves homeless single women with children, many of whom are victims of domestic violence. The shelter can house nine families at a time. In addition to putting a roof over residents’ heads, the facility provides meals, parenting classes, help getting children enrolled in school and support services such as assistance finding a job or finishing a GED or college classes.

Catholic Charities CEO Larry Smith
said the organization’s mission is to help the most vulnerable people.

“We don’t ask somebody if they are Catholic,” he said. “What we ask them is ‘Are you hungry, are you cold, are you sick?’ “

The shelter served 36families last year. The average length of stay is 93 days, but women can stay as long as it takes to get back on their feet. Smith said most of the residents who have left the Father Ed Judy House remain stable in the community, and 94 percent exited the shelter with income.

The shelter, which opened in 2005, is in a low-slung building surrounded by grassy fields. Inside, modest bedrooms are outfitted with twin beds, a cabinet for clothes and a nightstand. The words “With God all things are possible” is painted on a wall of one room.

“It’s pretty sparse,” program director Wendy Oldenbrook said. “We do the best we can with it. It’s safe — which is something new.”

Oldenbrook said one of the most successful outcomes of the shelter is that residents who have moved out continue to get support. If they need a meal, they can stop by and eat. Many of the families who have left are active “alumni.”

“I think the best part of the program is the alumni piece — so we stay with them,” Oldenbrook said. “They call us all the time. They pop by. We’ve known families for a long, long time.”

Spain came under repeated attack starting Thursday in what authorities called linked terrorist incidents, when a driver swerved a van into crowds in Barcelona’s historic Las Ramblas district, killing more than a dozen people and injuring scores of others. Early Friday, an attempted attack unfolded in a town down the coast

If there’s one superhero character whose rise might be most tied to the events of World War II, it is Captain America, who emerged from the minds of legends Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and sprung forth from an iconic 1941 debut cover on which Cap smacks Hitler right in the kisser.

A customer dining at Washington’s Oceanaire restaurant noticed an unusual line at the bottom of his receipt: “Due to the rising costs of doing business in this location, including costs associated with higher minimum wage rates, a 3% surcharge has been added to your total bill.”